The Change
by PowerLine21020
Summary: That day was going to be happy, exciting, and perhaps even have a happy ending. I could only wish that it would have been that way, especially for someone like me.
1. Preface

Prologue/ Story: The Change/ by PowerLine

I remember that day distinctly. I certainly do not want to remember it, but the harder I try to forget it, it just comes back with an unstoppable and rebellious force. I wish I could tell you more and tell you who I am, but now is not the time, nor the place. The time I have to write this is quite short, and a lot shorter time than I would really like to admit. All I can tell you now is that it happened. I was quite the fateful day for me, and perhaps for the town as well...  
I was so excited that day, to go on a great adventure with the one that I had trusted down to the core. I was ready to go anywhere with that pony; it was a secret where we were going anyway. However, the day ceased without resolution and without reason.  
The trust I had in that pony was the thing that kept me going day and night, and helped me through some pretty tough times as well. That trust that I thought I had was crushed, and thrown into a ditch. The fact that I had even had a shred of trust at all makes me cringe. This fateful day had created so many feelings inside of me; excitement, fear, and most of all, anger.


	2. Chapter 1: Joy

Joy/ Story: The Change/ by PowerLine

It was the first day of summer and we had just been released from school. I had a lot of things planned between my friends and family, most of which were just vacations of sleepovers. There was a lot of fun activities ahead, most of which I did not end up participating in.  
"Scootaloo, hurry up! Rarity is almost here to take us home!"  
"Coming!"  
Sweetie Belle was the first on the list of ponies who I was going to hang out with. I knew we were going to have a fun time, but having Rarity there didn't help quite so much because she didn't want to adventure as much as we did. Apple Bloom was also gone on a vacation of sorts, although she left a while earlier than all of the others and had planned on returning much earlier as well. Despite her last time selling apples in town, she had been invited to go to Manehattan with Applejack to test a new marketing strategy.  
"We're here girls!"  
"YAY!" We screamed as we both ran inside and up to where Sweetie Belle whenever she came over to Rarity's.  
"So Scootaloo what are we going to do?"  
"We could go to the Everfree Forest."  
Sweetie Belle shook her head. "No, Rarity is SUPER careful about us going out there now, especially after our last incident."  
"Oh yeah, that's true... Is there anyone we can meet with in town?"  
"No, I heard that everyone is going on vacations elsewhere, so we won't be able to. Unless you want to hang out with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon."  
"UGH, no!" I replied in disgust.  
"What about some board games? My sister just recently got Mall Madness."  
"Uh, no. More like boring games if you ask me."  
We both sat in silence as we thought about what we can do for the rest of the day. One suggestion after another, we ended up going through at least it dozen ideas, all of which were either not possible because we were at Rarity's, because everyone was gone for the summer, or because Apple Bloom was gone.  
"OH! I can't believe we didn't think of this at first! What about going to the clubhouse?"  
"Sweetie Belle, you're the best. It will be a little weird being there without Apple Bloom, but I think we'll surely find something fun to do there!"  
After her BRILLIANT decision, we went to find Rarity to tell her where we were going. We found her working on a new swimsuit line, which didn't look as good as Rarity it clearly thought it looked.  
"We're going to the clubhouse. Is that okay?"  
"Well, I guess that's alright. Just be back before sunset, and remember not to go into the Everfree Forest! I have a lot of work to do anyway on this new line "Maillot De Bain", which will be perfect for swimming in the summer!"  
"YAY! Thanks so much Rarity!" Sweet Belle said as she hugged Rarity. "See you later!"  
Sweetie Belle and I trotted as fast as we could to the clubhouse! It was a rush this time around going to the clubhouse, although I'm not too sure why. I had made the trip many times before, and hadn't felt this way before. Perhaps it was because Rarity had let us go so easily, which was strange...  
We finally arrived at the clubhouse, and we ran up the ramp and inside as fast as we could. We both plopped down onto the floor because we were both exhausted from trotting so far in so little time.  
"What now?" Sweetie Belle asked.  
"Well, we could try to earn our cutiemarks in something that is in here that we haven't tried before."  
"There isn't too much left to try out though, other than drawing things are putting on an opera."  
"I would MUCH prefer drawing things than putting on opera. Operas put me to sleep."  
"Then it's decided! What should we draw though?"  
"We could draw whatever we see outside the window." I suggested.  
"Sounds good to me!"  
We both got a piece of paper and a pencil to draw with, and went over to the window. I started to draw the outline of the town hall, but quickly got bored and ended up complaining about it.  
"UGH, this isn't quite what I thought it would be! I expected a little more excitement out of it! It's too boring!" I said as I layed down onto the floor.  
"Something like this takes a bit more time and patience Scootaloo."  
"But patience is LAME. I could be hanging out with Rainbow Dash or riding my scooter instead!"  
"I guess we could go into town and see if we could get some more paper and a pencil sharpener, since it looks like we are almost out of paper and don't have a pencil sharpener yet."  
"Sounds a lot more exciting than drawing!"  
At the time it had sounded like a lot more fun, since I didn't have the patience for a talent like that at all. I was ready to hop onto my scooter and go, but almost nothing could've prepared us for what happened next.  
"Scootaloo! Look outside quick, it looks like Rainbow Dash!"  
I jumped up quickly and took a look outside. Surely enough, there was Rainbow Dash rushing towards our clubhouse. At first I was excited to see her, and that she possibly wanted to take me on a ride. As she got closer I could see the expression on her face; it was fear and concern. She landed on the ground in front of the clubhouse with a "THOMP!", ran up the ramp, and ran inside the clubhouse.  
"Sorry to be the bearer of bad news guys, but Apple Bloom and Applejack are missing!" 


	3. Chapter 2: Lies

Lies/ Story: The Change/ by PowerLine

After we were told about Applejack and Apple Bloom being missing, we went back to Rarity's to figure out the situation. It turned out that Rarity had recieved a mysterious letter that had said that Applejack and Apple Bloom had never made it to Manehattan. It just so turned out that Rainbowdash had stopped by looking to ask Rarity to make her a flying outfit when the mail arrived. Rarity had read the letter, panicked, and told Rainbowdash to get Sweetie Belle and me as fast as possible.  
"Where in the wide land of Equestria could they have ended up? The way there only has one road for pony's sake!" Rainbowdash questioned.  
"Well, if it really is only a single road to get there, then why not try to search for them along that road, or maybe even just outside Manehattan." I said.  
"Good thinkin' Scoots!" Rainbowdash said an she rubbed me on my head.  
"Looks like that may be our best bet for finding those two. We better prepare for an expedition like this if we expect to go so far." said Rarity.  
For the next half hour, we spent time packing ourselves up for the journey and would return the next day to leave for Manehattan. Rarity found an emergency list of things we might need for such a trip, which she had pre-prepared for such a use.

~~EMERGENCY LIST~~

-Saddle bag

-Water

-Tent

-Sleeping bag

Rarity had said that she would take care of the tent situation, but that she wouldn't pack quite as heavily as she had done on our previous camping trip. In the morning, I returned to Rarity's house where the others were all waiting for me.  
"Is everypony ready to-"  
CRASH!  
Everypony looked around at each other in shock, and it took us a moment to figure out what happened. Something upstairs had fallen over, or banged against a door or something of the sort. Rarity quickly ran upstairs to see what the issue was, and returned a few minutes later claiming that one of her clothing racks had fallen over.  
"Now then, is everypony ready to go?" Rarity exclaimed.  
"YES MA'AM!" We all chimed in.

We reached our stopping point about halfway to Manehattan just after sunset. Our journey had so far been long and taken quite a bit longer than we had all expected. In order to get to our stopping point fast enough, we had to catch a few taxis that were passing at the time. We had kept an eye out for any signs of Applejack or Apple Bloom, but we hadn't seen any yet. I only hoped that they had been alright, and that nothing too bad had happened to them.  
After we arrived at our stopping point, we promptly set up camp and went to bed; we were all to tired from our expedition to stay awake any longer. Later on in the night, I had been woken up by Rarity who had crept out of the tent as quietly as she could; apparently not quiet enough. I decided to follow her because it was a little peculiar that she should be up so late. Closely following her, but far enough away that she didn't notice, I followed her into the woods and hid behind a tree after she stopped walking. She let out a light whistle in the tune of what sounded like some kind of bird. Suddenly, other hoovesteps started appearing from multiple sides, one so close to me that I almost gave my position away in fear. The hoovesteps had seemed to all stop about where Rarity had, and a discussion fired up soon after. All of the voices were too quiet to hear, although I could only tell that it was mostly colts that were in the group. The voices promptly dissipated and I tried peeking to see what had happened. Without any notice of hoovestep or breath, Rarity passed right by the tree that I was hiding behind just as I started to take a look. I froze in my place, and waited until she was far enough away that I could follow. This time, she seemed to simply be returning to the tent instead of going to some other random place in the woods. When I got to the outside of the tent, I waited until I could clearly hear Rarity snoring before I entered; I didn't want her to suspect me of following her. She finally began snoring again and I entered as quietly as I could, placing my hooves carefully on the ground so that I made as little noise as possible. I crawled back into my sleeping bag and went to sleep. I was so curious that night of what business she could possibly have out in the woods with a bunch of random strangers. It was that mystery that put me to sleep.


	4. Chapter 3: The Return

Return/ Story: The Change/ by PowerLine

"Help us Scootaloo! We NEED you!" A voice echoed from far away.  
A wild CRASH hit against a closet door.  
"Scootaloo! Please, we can't do this on our own!"  
There was another wild CRASH against the same closet door "SCOOTALOO!"

"SCOOTALOO! Wake up sleepy head! We need to get going so we can get to Manehattan on time!"  
I sat up in my sleeping bag, finally orienting myself as to where we were, why we were there, and who woke me up. Of course, only Rainbowdash could scream at you that loudly to wake someone up. Just as quickly as I had been woken up, I had forgotten my entire dream. I had hoped that it wouldn't be of any importance. It had turned out that I was the last one to wake up, and everything else had already been packed up and was ready to go. Rarity quickly rolled up my sleeping bag and put it into my saddle bag.  
"Come on Scootaloo, we can't lose any time!"  
I got my saddle bag on, still groggy from just waking up.  
"Yo Scoots, now that you're awake, we can tell you what we decided." Sweetie Belle said.  
"And what is that?"  
"We will be taking the train that runs along the road to Manehattan instead of doing what we did yesterday."  
"Will we be able to still see anything that may have been left behind from Applejack or Apple Bloom?"  
Sweetie Belle shrugged,  
"We should be going slow enough to notice any signs of them."  
After getting the latest scoop of what was going on, we were off.

The trip itself was quite uneventful, expect for seeing a pony trip and lose all of the stuff that she was carrying. Sometimes I wonder if some unicorns really know what they are doing or if they are in another world of their own.  
We finally arrived in the outskirts of Manehattan, still able to see the skyline so closely that it felt as if you could touch it.  
"Rainbowdash and Scootaloo, go and search to the East of the area while Sweetie Belle and I search to the West." Rarity commanded.  
We searched for hours around the area and asked many residents if they had seen Applejack or Apple Bloom. There was ultimately no way of finding them from what we all could see, and we had searched everywhere possible for them. We decided to go home, hoping that they would turn up eventually...

It has been a week since we first set out to look for Applejack and Apple Bloom, and everyone in town was still down with the loss of two well known colleagues. No one really seemed to be the same, although everyone still got their work done and did what they needed to do in order to survive. The 6 best friends in town had been knocked down to 5, and the 3 Crusaders were knocked down to 2.  
Sweetie Belle and I went into town to get Rarity some supplies for another dress line she was making, since her swimsuits didn't sell very well. This time she ultimately tried to make more swimsuits, but with a whole different color scheme. We were about to enter into the fabric store when something caught Sweetie Belle's eye.  
"Hey Scoots, why do you think so many ponies would be joined all in one place? It's not any sort of special occasion..."  
"Well, why don't we just go and check out what seems to be the big deal?" I suggested.  
We headed off in the direction of the crowd, Sweetie following me closely. We fought our way through the huge group of people only to find two ponies leaving the Everfree Forest. It was Applejack and Apple Bloom. I was rather shocked that they managed to be coming from that direction, and how they even got sidetracked into there. As they got closer, it was apparent that Applejack was hurt pretty bad on her front-left leg because she was limping, and was even still wincing from the pain as if it were fresh. Applejack even looked as if she had sustained multiple hits to the head and side; she was banged up pretty bad. Sweetie Belle and I both sprinted as fast as we could to meet them halfway.  
"Applejack! Apple Bloom!" Sweetie Belle yelled.  
"Heya sugarcube... AH!" Applejack said before she fell to the ground.  
"Applejack! Are you alright?" Apple Bloom said as she rushed to her sister's side.  
Applejack didn't answer.  
"Sweetie Belle, go get Nurse Redheart, STAT!" I exclaimed.  
After finding Redheart, they rushed back with a stretcher to retrieve Applejack, and the three of us, now reunited, followed Applejack into the hospital. Of course, we had to wait in the lobby until the nurses and doctors were done checking her out and fixing her up. It was silent as we all sat and waited and we didn't think to ask Apple Bloom as to what had happened. We figured we would wait until we could talk to Applejack instead; we had planned this out in the case that they did indeed return. It took a few hours for them to finish, and when we entered the room Applejack had just regained conciousness. She was all bound up on her front-left leg and side, and had the upper left half of her head bound up, covering her left eye.  
"Applejack! What happened to you guys? Are you okay?" Sweetie and I both said in unison.  
"Ah'm alright for the most part. We just took - a wrong shortcut, ended up - getting ourselves hurt, and - lost our delivery. The real question - is if Applebloom is okay." Applejack managed to say.  
"Ah'm alright sis! Thanks to you..." Apple Bloom said.  
"Well, we'll leave you to rest AJ, we're happy that you're finally back!" I said before I left the room.  
"Yeah! We're happy you're safe and sound and back in town!" Sweetie Belle said as she rushed after me.  
Apple Bloom didn't follow us, and had apparently stayed behind with her sister to keep her company.

I laid down in bed ready to go to sleep, contemplating all that had occurred in that day. It was certainly nice to know that they were finally home and back in town, but something just didn't quite sit right with me about the whole experience. From our first setting out on the journey to the Apples returning to town, something was up, but I just couldn't pin point it.  
"Ugh, it's too late to contemplate things so complex! I'm going to bed" I said restlessly. 


	5. Update: A

Hey readers! This is just a quick notice to say that although I've been pumping these out pretty often, I will be taking a light break for a while. How long until the next chapter? My estimate is anywhere from less than a week to three weeks at most. I have been pretty busy recently, and am just now reaching my limits for being able to do so many things at once... I plan on being able to expand some of the chapters as well by adding more dialog and detail, so be sure to read them again if you're interested! Anyway, that's about it! Stay tuned for the next update/chapter!

PS, I leave author's notes on my chapter posts. Should I post them below the chapters here, or should I not post the author's notes?


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